A Look at a Book
BOOK REVIEW: Alphabet Soup by Page Prewitt
I had read this small booklet before (more than once) but it had an even greater impact on me as I read it today. It is remarkable to see how Page moves from her life as a young, serious Christian in a hopeless search for a reason to live to a life that no longer resembled a confused bowl of alphabet soup. "Just the opposite," she says, "my life has meaning, purpose and joy."
How this came about in her own life is made quite clear. She came to see what Norman Grubb taught was what the Scripture taught-that real life was God living out through His children. "Knowing that there was another here (Christ) to do for me what I could not do for myself (live life) began to put me at ease. The pressure and the condemnation and the self-hate began to lift."
Her outer circumstances didn’t all of a sudden become wonderful, but her attitude changed. She began to see that God not only had ordained her circumstances but also lived in her to handle whatever He sent her way. She held on to this even though much of the time the circumstances were difficult and the feelings about them were negative.
Page tells of sin and failure being a part of her experience and how God showed her how knowing and saying who you are is not enough. She came to see there is no such personas an independent self. That is the lie Satan deceives us with because it is the lie he believes about himself. She shows us how a life of faith works: by concentrating on the reality that we are not independent self-operating selves rather than on how we feel or what we think. Romans 7:20 says, "But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I can no longer be the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me" Of course, before we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, it is always Satan running our lives, but now as Christians, it is Christ living as us, unless we are in unbelief about who we are.
The way Page explains the difference between soul (thoughts and feelings) and spirit (knowing, desiring, and willing) is extremely clear. When you understand this, you don’t deny your feelings but neither do you take your identity from them. Instead, you live from your spirit center–one with the Lord and Creator of the universe.
If you are one whose life is full of distress, confusion, anxieties, resentment, fears, etc., this is the booklet you might consider ordering.
